Re: Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Pro Edition 3GB Video Card

Jason, are you optimistic that 10.9.2 will fix this? i have read there is to be some overhaul of the graphics drivers.

I am not. I have used every beta of 10.9.2 to date without seeing any improvement. I have tested the 270X, 280X, and 7950 in two different 3,1 MP's. Seeing as how the 7950 was never an official Apple product like the 5xxx generation and since Sapphire labels it as only for 4,1 and 5,1, I believe everyone will point fingers or just wipe their hands of the issue. I have proved it isn't a hardware issue through numerous bootcamp benchmarks, demonstrating it all "should" work the same as the other MP's, but I don't expect a change. I am strongly considering just dumping all ATI 7xxx cards for nVidia, but I am waiting on proven benchmarks for the Titan Black or 780 Ti. They have their own issues needing a 10.9.2 resolution.

Ok...i think i needed someone else to reach that conclusion because i was blithely hoping it would be fixed with the next release. I think i need to work towards a newer mac pro as i do not really wish to go back to nVidia as i think the desktop performance is better with the AMD/ATi cards particularly as i am running at hi-res and a 27' cinema LED.

Have you tried placing the 7950 in any of the other PCI-e slots? Just for arguments-sake given this is an perculiar anamoly, in any case?

I don't visit every forum but I did read that people could not get Mac Edition 7950's to work with a standard native Lion install... which for the purposes of this Apple Mac Pro Community, is my only interest. Beyond that, I always direct someone to netkas and "google" or Barefeats and MacRumors.

To me, any means to get Mavericks on 'unsupported' machines is just that, and all the hemming and hawing about how trying to marry PCIe 1.1 and 2.0 and get a 3,1 to do better, when yes Windows (and linux) perform better than OS X, hence, "it has to be drivers." And the teams at AMD + Apple?

The 3,1 in my book is a frankenstein for some reason. Barefeats paints a picture of *** is going on with AMD drivers.

I have tried every slot, I have tried different 7950 cards, I have tried diferent ROM versions, I have tried different gpu's within the 7xxx / R9 lineup (280X, 270X), I have tried different MacPro's, I have tried with and without various kext's, I have tried every OS build from 10.8.2 to present, I have tried different testign methodologies...

Nothing I do changes that modern gpu's are running at about 40% less output in OS X compared to Win 7. The hardware is perfectly capable of supporting the GPU's but the drivers are turable, simply turable (Charles Barkley voice). I don't disagree that the 3,1 is from early 2008, which in normal computer terms is prehistoric. However, the hardware was soooo far ahead of the software that we are only now seeing full optimization of multi-core and all the RAM. If the darn GPU would run full out I have no need for any MP newer than my 3,1's. They still can churn away at FCP X or Aperture. I am in no rush to replace a dual processor quad core computer no matter when it was first released so long as it still does its job.

10.9.2 didn't fix the problem.

Do you have the firmware selector switch on the card flipped to the correct position for the Mac Pro?

I have used the stock Mac and Win designated ROMs as well as custom OC'd profiles. All EFI does is enable boot screens and allow system profiler to function correctly. Performance is identical for either setting.

sorry-just wanted to throw in my 2 cents. I have a Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) and I do have one of the Sapphire cards

and have had no problems with it whatsoever. I am running Mavericks, and did install the included software driver cd beforehand. To the best of my knowledge the manufacturer suggests a Mac Pro 4,1, but it will run in a 3,1-albeit slowed down a bit due to PCI-E speed/bandwidth being slightly reduced in the 3,1. As the hatter said, the 2,1 will not support a 7950. Period. Now you might have a bad card, or have it set incorrectly (I thinik the switch has to be set to the Right for Mac, and Left for Windows) , but if it won't work, that's it.

JB

The 7950 can and will run in a 1,1 or a 2,1, although not officially supported. Check my clearly cited links above or check out Barefeats. The 1,1 and 2,1 hardware is fully 64bit capable, Apple simply shipped the machines with a 32-bit EFI. I have previously linked to published benchmarks showing a 7950 performing higher on the 2,1 than on a 3,1.

I have multiple 7950's. Also if you read the threads, I have tried over 7 different individual GPU's from the AMD 7xxx line up including the 270X and 280X. I have used every PCI-e slot, both ROM selector settings for all cards, done fresh installs of nearly every OS that supports 7xxx GPU's as well as beta builds, utilized both internal and external power supplies. I find it hard to believe every GPU from different batches is defective but some how manages to perform perfectly in Win 7.

Also, for everyone who keeps referencing the "switch" - All the switch does is change from EFI to UEFI bios. The core frequency, core voltage, memory frequency, and memory voltage are all the same. Performance is unaffected by the switch setting. All that happens by using the wrong mode is you lose your boot screen.

When you say you have "had no problems with it whatsoever", have you compared your OpenCL performance in OS X vs in Win 7? Have you compared OpenCL results in OS X against benchmarks from a 4,1 or 5,1? The results are consistently a 40% performance drop on the 3,1 in OS X. Sure, the card works with "no problems with it whatsoever", so long as you don't consider half power a problem.

The drivers for AMD 7xxx GPU's are terrible and weren't fixed in 10.9.2.

thanks for setting me straight. Just goes to show me that I still have much to learn and I don't know as much as I thought I did

JB

Ok i'm on 10.9.2 and no change ot 'valley' benchmarks. However, i can distinctly hear the fan on the Sapphire going up to a 3rd gear now and this is a change from the earlier iteration of Mavericks. Jason what results do you get with Cinebench R15?

Hi all!

Just installed 7950 Mac Edition on my Mac Pro 4,1, running 10.9.2. Cinebench R15 scores 43.08, which is a great improvement from the 12.77 I got with my old nvidia gt120...

But I installed windows 7 on a different hard disk via bootcamp and the result is 65.88!!! That's quite crazy! So definitely, something's wrong with the OSX driver...

They removed my last post for violating terms of service. Let's just say this will be fixed sooner than later.

Apple has modified its beta program so that it is now open to the public - https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram. Until now, only developers could legally, officially download and install beta builds of OS X. That also meant that only registered developers could provide feedback on those builds. With the program being opened to the public, anyone can provide feedback on the builds. I strongly encourage everyone to provide feedback reports on this on going performance issue. They might actually take notice if enough complain (now that we can).